President Obama attacked Rep. Paul Ryans budget as nothing but thinly veiled Social Darwinism. That is not surprising. What is surprising is that the chairman of a major committee of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops launched a similar scathing attack against Ryan, a faithful Catholic who says his budget work is informed and guided by the social teaching of the Church.

Using Obamas campaign rhetoric, Bishop Stephen Blaire, chairman of the bishops Committee on Domestic Justice and Human Development, recently wrote to Congress declaring that Ryans budget fails to meet [the Churchs] moral criteria because it does not require shared sacrifice, which Blaire [like Obama] defines as tax increases and cuts to unnecessary defense spending. Some of the proposed spending cuts in Ryans budget, Blaire said, are unjust and wrong.

Blaire has it backward. What is unjust and wrong is this bishops attack on a good Catholic layman.

Put aside for a moment the fact that shared sacrifice appears nowhere in the catechism of the Catholic Church. It is a reelection slogan for the Democratic Party. Put aside, as well, the fact that the bishop of Stockton, Calif., has near-zero competence to judge what military spending is necessary or unnecessary. The fact is Ryans budget does not cut spending at all  it simply slows the growth of spending. As Ryan explained in an interview on the Catholic Eternal Word Television Network (EWTN), our budget increases annual spending by 3 percent a year instead of the presidents proposal to go to 4 ½ percent a year.

The Bishop should educate himself. This whole concept of social justice being the shared purvue of the state and the Church is incredibly destructive and will eventually lead to a state run church. Personally, I do not believe that a self serving politician (is there any other kind?) is actually capable of performing a charitable act. If indeed charity begins with God the credit is God’s also. I think that Pope Leo addressed some of this in 1881 ? in his encyclical.

It’s taking the American church, like all behemoth corporations, an awfully long time to correct past mistakes. In this instance, the mistake was swallowing the poison-spiked pablum served up by Vatican II “mediators.” And Blaire, as a life-long Californian, just ate it up.

We should ignore all “justice and peace” -niks unless they make it a point to decry abortion as the number 1 injustice in the world. If they are active pro-lifers then I will gladly listen to what they might have to say about other things.

And one of the scariest things about this man is that he’s named Peter.

One Of These Men Will Be The Next Pope

1/16

Cardinal Peter Kodwo Appiah Turkson

AP
Country: Ghana
Position: President of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace
Age: 63
Likelihood: Highest odds according to Paddy Power: 2/1, which seems way high to us even though he is a very strong candidate.
What His Election Would Mean: That the Cardinals recognize the future isn’t in Benedict’s Europe but in the explosive growth of the Church in the “global South”
Reasons He’ll Get Elected: He is a superstar in the College of Cardinals, a great communicator, and symbol of the global reach of the Church.
Reasons He Might Not Get Elected: The Catholic Church in Africa can be very disconnected from the Church that the majority of the European Cardinals live in. In Africa the top issues aren’t sexual politics and theological disputes, they are exorcism, animism, the growth of Islam, and condemnation of Western economic policy.

Ryans budget fails to meet [the Churchs] moral criteria because it does not require shared sacrifice,

This is why the Catholic agenda is never going to get anywhere in America. The church has a clear, moral position on abortion and fights the good fight, sometimes alone, on Right to Life issues.

Then they go and make an incredibly stupid, ignorant statement like this. Does this bishop not know how much spending has freakin INCREASED over the past decade???? Does he not know the percentage of taxes already paid by "the rich"????? Its knee jerk stupidity to make a comment like he made.

19
posted on 04/24/2012 6:24:43 AM PDT
by Opinionated Blowhard
("When the people find they can vote themselves money, that will herald the end of the republic.")

Bishop Stephen Blaire, chairman of the bishops Committee on Domestic Justice and Human Development, recently wrote to Congress declaring that Ryans budget fails to meet [the Churchs] moral criteria because it does not require shared sacrifice,

Just asking but what kind of lifestyle does Bishop Blaire have? He's demanding sacrifice but what is he willing to do about it? How new is his car? What model is it? How often does he go out to restaurants? Where does he go on vacations? How many rooms does his house have? Does he have a maid? etc.

20
posted on 04/24/2012 6:28:50 AM PDT
by Tribune7
(GAS WAS $1.85 per gallon on the day Obama was Inaugurated! - - freeper Gaffer)

IMO, the tacit ceding of welfare programs to gov’t by Religion, especially Christians, has seen a loss of religious influence in society, to our detriment.

Government is incapable of “fairness”, as it is amoral, at best. It blindly supports evil as well as good. Only the “church” has (had?) the tools & incentive to affect the poor in a positive, lasting way.

22
posted on 04/24/2012 6:35:44 AM PDT
by Mister Da
(The mark of a wise man is not what he knows, but what he knows he doesn't know!)

How embarrassing for a committee chair to be covered as though he were a spokesman for the greater Church, when he is but another Catholic socialist picked to facilitate a committee, but with a microphone. Such a bias for socialism would never be approved by the USCCB as a signature statement.

I would expect fall out coming in time even though he made press time. Demoralizing for rank and file Catholics, but not entirely unexpected given the powers and principalities always at work in the Church.

“Shared Sacrifice” is simply lipstick for the pig, that is Marxism. Obama’s policies prove this, by the fact that they have only resulted in more poor people. Stealing more from the job creators will only increase the rate of growth among the poor, as fewer jobs and opportunities will be available, and the governments ability to “help” the poor is abysmal! Paul Ryan's plan SHARES the growth and prosperity, by motivating job creation and providing the poor and underemployed with a path to self sufficiency. The world needs more “Shared Opportunity”, NOT more government handouts, aimed at maintaining a dependent class!

Disclaimer:
Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual
posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its
management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the
exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.